I’m not sure if this was a problem, but just to clarify, the century number is one more than the yearly dates. Examples: The eighteenth century was the 1700s, not the 1800s. The nineteenth century was the 1800s not the 1900s. None of us lived in the 19th century unless we are at least 114 years old. If the earliest automobiles occurred in the 18th century, that would mean they would have been available about the time the U.S.A. was formed (the 1700s).

Not trying to be facetious but is there anyone here who doesn’t know this?

Cuganot’s steam wagon, which was the forerunner of the automobile was invented in the 1700s. It didn’t get followed up on until the 1800s, when the British built their first steam powered cars, but because of restrictive laws which were quickly passed, the British steam cars became locomotives, and gasoline powered cars would have to wait until the end of the 19th Century to appear.

Signature

“There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me’.” ― Philip K. Dick

Cuganot’s steam wagon, which was the forerunner of the automobile was invented in the 1700s. It didn’t get followed up on until the 1800s, when the British built their first steam powered cars, but because of restrictive laws which were quickly passed, the British steam cars became locomotives, and gasoline powered cars would have to wait until the end of the 19th Century to appear.

The credit goes to the person(s) by whom an invention was perfected and made available to the general public, the era it happened in and when the general public embraced it. It doesn’t matter what might have stopped it from having been made available earlier.

Cuganot’s steam wagon, which was the forerunner of the automobile was invented in the 1700s. It didn’t get followed up on until the 1800s, when the British built their first steam powered cars, but because of restrictive laws which were quickly passed, the British steam cars became locomotives, and gasoline powered cars would have to wait until the end of the 19th Century to appear.

The credit goes to the person(s) by whom an invention was perfected and made available to the general public, the era it happened in and when the general public enbraced it. It doesn’t matter what might have stopped it from having been made available earlier.

Lois

Except that when historians talk about the birth of the automobile they always mention Cugnot as being the first to conceive of such a vehicle. Its all a matter of opinion.

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 – 2 October 1804) was a French inventor. He is known to have built the first working self-propelled mechanical vehicle, the world’s first automobile. This claim is disputed by some sources, however, which suggest that Ferdinand Verbiest, as a member of a Jesuit mission in China, may have been the first to build, around 1672, a steam-powered vehicle but that was too small to carry a driver or passengers.[1

More commercially successful for a time than Trevithick’s carriage were the steam carriage services operated in England in the 1830s, principally by Walter Hancock and associates of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, among others and in Scotland by John Scott Russell. However, the heavy road tolls imposed by the Turnpike Acts discouraged steam road vehicles and for a short time allowed the continued monopoly of horse traction until railway trunk routes became established in the 1840s and ‘50s.

TVA, while the posters may have been joking or may had information they didn’t add, the following were a bit odd, so that’s why I pointed out the system.

Post #22 by CT:

some of the items on your list can trace their origins back to the 19th Century (and in the case of the automobile, the 18th Century)

Post #24 by TVA:

I had the opportunity to live in the mid 19th Century (sort of)

Occam

I knew somebody would cock an eyebrow after reading my post! I was a reenactor and a living historian for a time (The Civil War period, hence the 19th Century. That’s why I posted “sort of”) and experienced the conditions of that period minus the terror, disease and blood. Wearing wool in the Summer though was enough to long for an air conditioned room. As to CT’s post, I don’t know. What about it CT? Steam cars perhaps? They were toying with the idea then.

Cuganot’s steam wagon, which was the forerunner of the automobile was invented in the 1700s. It didn’t get followed up on until the 1800s, when the British built their first steam powered cars, but because of restrictive laws which were quickly passed, the British steam cars became locomotives, and gasoline powered cars would have to wait until the end of the 19th Century to appear.

The credit goes to the person(s) by whom an invention was perfected and made available to the general public, the era it happened in and when the general public enbraced it. It doesn’t matter what might have stopped it from having been made available earlier.

Lois

Except that when historians talk about the birth of the automobile they always mention Cugnot as being the first to conceive of such a vehicle. Its all a matter of opinion.

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 – 2 October 1804) was a French inventor. He is known to have built the first working self-propelled mechanical vehicle, the world’s first automobile. This claim is disputed by some sources, however, which suggest that Ferdinand Verbiest, as a member of a Jesuit mission in China, may have been the first to build, around 1672, a steam-powered vehicle but that was too small to carry a driver or passengers.[1

More commercially successful for a time than Trevithick’s carriage were the steam carriage services operated in England in the 1830s, principally by Walter Hancock and associates of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, among others and in Scotland by John Scott Russell. However, the heavy road tolls imposed by the Turnpike Acts discouraged steam road vehicles and for a short time allowed the continued monopoly of horse traction until railway trunk routes became established in the 1840s and ‘50s.

The original inventor can be and often is credited for an invention that didn’t take off until later, even after his lifetime. Sometimes the original inventor’s name is unknown to most peope who use the item. It’s kind of a crapshoot.

Does anyone know who invented the typewriter? Hint: it wasn’t Remington or Underwood. It’s a name I’ll bet you and most everyone else have never heard.

Someone asked this question last week. I thought it would be a good topic for discussion. Nobody could think of anything.

What good has come out of the 21st century so far?

LL

I remember as a kid in the 70s reading science fiction stories about futuristic societies based entirely on credit. That is the characters would use an “identity disc” or something to buy things. Even then I remember thinking it would be cool, but I took it for granted that such a system would only work if there were a fool proof method of making sure someone else couldn’t steal your disc or just get your number off of it. I mean, it’s one thing for a pickpocket to steal what cash you happen to have on you, but if he could steal everything you own with just one swoop? Nobody would be that stupid, I thought. And here we are in the futuristic world of 2014, and looking at how easy it is to steal identities, I guess I was a pretty naïve kid, wasn’t I?